Cardiac Anomalies - is something going on or is this normal?

[proffate]

1 in 200,000 high school athletes die every year in the US due to sudden cardiac arrest. The rate increases with the level of competition: 1 in 50,000 college athletes succumb to it. It seems obvious to me that the extreme levels at which pro cyclists exercise will trigger more cardiac events than the normal population. It also seems incredibly likely, although perhaps not "obvious", that a heart which is unusually performant is also more likely to fail (like an overclocked CPU).

 

[King Boonen]

1 in 200,000 high school athletes die every year in the US due to sudden cardiac arrest. The rate increases with the level of competition: 1 in 50,000 college athletes succumb to it. It seems obvious to me that the extreme levels at which pro cyclists exercise will trigger more cardiac events than the normal population. It also seems incredibly likely, although perhaps not "obvious", that a heart which is unusually performant is also more likely to fail (like an overclocked CPU).

Why is this "incredibly likely"?

 

[proffate]

Why is this "incredibly likely"?

You left off "seems", which is the word I use when I'm describing my own intuitive understanding of something. It seems that way to me because high performance engines (even biological ones) break down more easily. Horses (VO2 max ~= 200) can be run to death but the average human tends to collapse from exhaustion before death. Pro athletes would be somewhere between Homer Simpson and Secretariat.

Luckily, actual scientists have noted this correlation and many studies shown an increased risk of arrhythmia in endurance athletes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5135187/

The linked review does note the possibility of drugs playing a role, although given the groups studied ("vigorously exercising middle aged men" and other amateur populations) and their likelihood of substance abuse, it doesn't make me think it's all down to roids.

 

[King Boonen]

You left off "seems", which is the word I use when I'm describing my own intuitive understanding of something. It seems that way to me because high performance engines (even biological ones) break down more easily. Horses (VO2 max ~= 200) can be run to death but the average human tends to collapse from exhaustion before death. Pro athletes would be somewhere between Homer Simpson and Secretariat.

Luckily, actual scientists have noted this correlation and many studies shown an increased risk of arrhythmia in endurance athletes: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5135187/

The linked review does note the possibility of drugs playing a role, although given the groups studied ("vigorously exercising middle aged men" and other amateur populations) and their likelihood of substance abuse, it doesn't make me think it's all down to roids.

I missed off seems because it didn't seem relevant when claiming something is highly likely, it's in the quoted post.

Which high performance biological engines break down more easily? How are you defining performance? Horses are pretty different to people, what baseline are you using to normalise between the two?


The linked paper shows that endurance athletes are more prone to AF (to be correct, the study you linked doesn't show this, it just says references 6-24 do and summarises them in table 1), which is evidence for this statement you made:

"It seems obvious to me that the extreme levels at which pro cyclists exercise will trigger more cardiac events than the normal population."

It's worth noting that those studies aren't just about pro athletes, the one you probably should have quoted is this one:

Is the risk of atrial fibrillation higher in athletes than in the general population? A systematic review and meta-analysis. - PubMed - NCBI

That wasn't the statement I was questioning however.